21 Carver Students Head to International Thespian Festival

The Thespians delivered impressive performances at 2017 State Thespian Festival held in Grapevine, TX.

An image from the Texas State Thespian Festival’s All-State performance.

The Carver HS Panthers delivered outstanding performances at the Texas State Thespian Festival held Nov. 16-18 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, TX.

Each year, Texas Thespians hosts a statewide festival, which includes more than 7,000 delegates. It is one of the largest annual thespian festivals where students and their troupe directors celebrate an entire weekend of theater.

The festival gives students opportunities to perform and earn recognition. Activities include:

Workshops

Main Stage performances

Play marathons

College auditions

Performance competitions

Technical competitions

Nationally acclaimed guest speakers

Opportunities to advance to the International Thespian Society National Festival

The sessions and workshops help the young Thespians develop their acting and technical theater skills.

In the competition portion, Carver students shined. More than 20 earned Superior ratings and will advance to the International Thespian Festival held each June in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Students Who Received Excellent Ratings

National Individual Events (NIEs) is an educational program that offers Thespians the opportunity to receive constructive feedback on prepared theatrical material and technical designs. The performance Individual Events include: monologue, duet acting, group acting, solo musical theatre, duet musical theatre, and group musical theatre. Students must qualify with an overall Superior at their chapter events and must be an inducted Thespian by the time of registration in order to be eligible to present an IE in Lincoln. The National Individual Events program culminates in a showcase of outstanding entries. Up to 12-selected performance participants will present their pieces on the Festival main stage in June.

Ri’Chard Jordan and Arielle Wilson took part in the duet acting NIE. Their performance was chosen as a main stage IE finalist after receiving a perfect score from the judges.

Mamie Parris plays ‘Grizabella’ in the Broadway musical “Cats.”

This year’s keynote speaker was Mamie Parris. The native Texan currently stars as Grizabella in the Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical Cats. Her Broadway and national tour credits include: School of Rock (Patty) (cast album), Wicked (Elphaba), 9 To 5 The Musical (as Judy Bernly, the role created by Jane Fonda in the iconic film), the Tony-Nominated revival of Ragtime, 5-time Tony-Winner The Drowsy Chaperone, Legally Blonde- the Musical, and Roundabout Theatre’s acclaimed revivals of On The 20th Century (Agnes) (cast album) and 110 In the Shade (cast album).

Carver’s Bishop Pearsall performed in the in the all-state closing ceremony performance with Parris. Additionally, Bishop received a scholarship from Texas Thespians. He also received the James and Edna Adams New York Scholarship for a summer Broadway musical theater intensive for advanced young performers.

Seniors Pearsall and Jordan auditioned for colleges. They received a combined total of 28 callbacks from the following universities: Cal-Arts, Colorado Mesa, KD Conservatory, Lamar University, Long Island, Loyola University, Nebraska Wesleyan, NY Conservatory, Oklahoma City, Relativity School, Saint Mary of Minnesota, Savannah College of Art & Design, Southern Methodist University, Southwestern, Stephen F. Austin, Texas Lutheran, Texas State, Texas Tech, The New School, University of Cincinnati, University of Houston, University of Incarnate Word, University of Minnesota, University of Evansville, UT-Austin, UT-El Paso and West Texas A&M University.

Roshunda Jones is the theater director at the magnet school. Jabari Collins is the technical director.

The Carver HS theater group poses for a picture at the Texas State Thespian Festival.

Calendar

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It is the policy of Aldine ISD not to discriminate or engage in harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, or any other legally protected status in its educational and vocational programs, services or activities or matters related to employment as required by Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; Age Discrimination in Employment Act; Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.